Mt Joy Baptist Church

Mt Joy Baptist Church is a Baptist church that was founded in 1857 by slaves who had previously attended services at First Baptist Church of Trussville. That year they began meeting in a log cabin on the Sam Latham Plantation with First Baptist's pastor leading services. They called themselves Latham's Baptist Church.

After the Civil War a lot was donated to the church at what is now 4200 Valley Road near exit 141 off I-59. The church's historical records were destroyed in a 1914 fire, and its second building was destroyed in another fire in 1942.

In 1998 Mt Joy merged its membership with Mt Canaan Baptist Church, another dwindling Trussville congregation which had been founded in 1914 by splitting away from Mt Joy. The re-combined congregation met at Mt Canaan while a new building was built at Mt Joy's historic plot. In 2000 another church, New Bethel Baptist Church (Trussvile), which had also previously split off from Mt Joy, merged back in.

In 2006 the growing church broke ground on a new $1.1 million 400-seat sanctuary. It hoped to celebrate its 150th anniversary in the new building in November 2007, but delays pushed completion to 2008.

Pastors

• Henry Tally
• Larry Hollman, 1992–

References

• Garrison, Greg (May 20, 2007) "Mt. Joy Baptist respects past as it builds new sanctuary." The Birmingham News
• Fallin, Wilson (2007) Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama. University of Alabama Press
• Garrison, Greg (August 12, 2022) "Oldest Black church in Jefferson County celebrates 165 years." The Birmingham News

External links

• Mt Joy Baptist Church on Facebook.com